Man fatally shot at Florida theater over texting WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. (AP) — Chad Oulson was described by friends as a man who loved dirt bikes and his baby daughter. Curtis Reeves was a retired Tampa police officer with numerous commendations who liked riding his motorcycle with his wife. The men’s lives collided in a movie theater altercation that left Oulson dead and Reeves in jail. Oulson was texting his daughter’s daycare, friends said, and Reeves got mad. Authorities said Reeves shot an...

How tunnels are built, used along US-Mexico border NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) — As border security has tightened, drug cartels have turned to tunneling beneath the ground to avoid detection. Nearly 170 tunnels have been found nationwide since 1990, most along the Arizona and California border with Mexico. The job of searching these networks can be dangerous, so the U.S. Border Patrol is unveiling its latest technology in the underground war — a wireless, camera-equipped robot that can do the job in a...

NJ GOP Gov. Christie: ’We let down the people’ TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Republican Gov. Chris Christie, faced with a widening political scandal that threatens to undermine his second term and a possible 2016 presidential run, apologized again Tuesday, saying his administration “let down the people we are entrusted to serve” but the issue doesn’t define his team or the state. On the eve of his second term, he opened his annual State of the State address by touching only briefly on the apparent ...

Vigil draws hundreds after New Mexico shooting ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) — A 12-year-old New Mexico boy drew a shotgun from a band-instrument case and shot and wounded two classmates at his middle school Tuesday morning before a teacher talked him into dropping the weapon and he was taken into custody, officials and witnesses said. A boy was critically injured and a girl was in satisfactory condition following the shooting at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell. Gov. Susana Martinez said the studen...

US judge strikes down Okla. same-sex marriage ban TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A federal judge struck down Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban Tuesday, but headed off any rush to the altar by setting aside his order while state and local officials complete an appeal. It was the second time in a month that a federal judge has set aside a deeply conservative state’s limits on same-sex marriage, after Utah’s ban was reversed in December. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Terence Kern described Oklahoma’s ban on...

Target breach is a wake-up call to othersMore Target-sized security breaches will happen if banks and retail stores don't start working together to further protect customers' data, JPMorgan Chase's CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday. JPMorgan has replaced 2 million credit and debit cards as a result of the breach, said Dimon, in his first public comments about the event. The bank has replaced nearly all the affected cards. JPMorgan is the world's largest issuer of credit cards. Dimon expec...

Christie fires aide, apologizes for traffic jams TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Republican Gov. Chris Christie fired one of his top aides on Thursday and apologized repeatedly for his staff's "stupid" behavior, insisting during a nearly two-hour news conference that he had no idea anyone around him had engineered traffic jams as part of a political vendetta against a Democratic mayor. "I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team," Christie said as he addressed the w...

Trapped trucker survives hours in subzero temps INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tim Rutledge's eyelid had frozen shut. His voice was hoarse after competing for hours with bitter-cold wind and humming truck engines while screaming for help. He was losing consciousness, pinned under his rig in sub-zero temperatures at an Indiana truck stop. The longtime Florida truck driver had crawled under his truck with a hammer to loosen ice from his brakes around 4 a.m. Monday, as record-breaking temperatures swept ...

Texas firefighter uses beer to put out tire blaze HOUSTON (AP) — An off-duty Houston firefighter made the best of his resources when trying to put out a truck tire fire: He used beer the rig was hauling. Fire Capt. Craig Moreau and his wife were driving home Monday night after a trip to Austin when they came upon an 18-wheeler on fire. Moreau and the trucker, whose brake problems started the fire, tried using a small extinguisher. Moreau says he thought the fire was out, but then noticed the ...

Louisville hires Petrino again as football coachLooking back, Bobby Petrino said the first of his many mistakes in recent years was leaving Louisville, which provided the first of several head coaching opportunities on the college and professional levels. Upon returning Thursday to the Cardinals after seven years, Petrino promised his second stint would be permanent because this was always his destination — even with collegiate stops at Arkansas and Western Kentucky and a 13-game foray with...

Polar air blamed for 21 deaths nationwide ATLANTA (AP) — Fountains froze over, a 200-foot Ferris wheel in Atlanta shut down, and Southerners had to dig out winter coats, hats and gloves they almost never have to use. The brutal polar air that has made the Midwest shiver over the past few days spread to the East and the Deep South on Tuesday, shattering records that in some cases had stood for more than a century. The mercury plunged into the single digits and teens from Boston and New...

Coldest Air in Decades Threatens to Freeze Pipes in South, EastAccuWeather.com reports temperatures Monday night and Tuesday over much of the interior South and the mid-Atlantic will venture into territory that have not been felt in two decades. The arctic blast will bring the risk of frostbite and hypothermia to those not property dressed. It will also bring the potential for dead car batteries, frozen pipes and power outages. In some areas, moisture left behind from recent rainfall may not only cause ca...

Historic freeze could break Midwest temp records SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The deep freeze expected soon in the Midwest, New England and even the South will be one to remember, with potential record-low temperatures heightening fears of frostbite and hypothermia. It hasn't been this cold for decades — 20 years in Washington, D.C., 18 years in Milwaukee, 15 in Missouri — even in the Midwest, where bundling up is second nature. Weather Bell meteorologist Ryan Maue said, "If you're under 40 (yea...

Big winter storm dumps 21 inches of snow in Mass. BOSTON (AP) — A strong winter storm slammed the Northeast with stiff winds and punishing cold on Thursday, dumping nearly 2 feet of snow in parts of the region and threatening more. The National Weather Service said 21 inches of snow had fallen in Boxford, just north of Boston, by Thursday night, while other parts of the state had 17 or 18 inches. It said parts of upstate New York had 18 inches while New York City was expected to get about 8. ...

Thief carries 250-pound safe out of Mass. eatery WEYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Massachusetts police are searching for a strong-armed thief who carried a 250-pound safe out of a restaurant. Kevin Hynes says a man walked out of his Stockholders Restaurant in Weymouth on Sunday night lugging the vault. Surveillance tape shows the man entering a side door at the rear of the restaurant, heading down the stairs and coming back up carrying a large object wrapped in a trash bag. No arrests have been made. ...

Ball drops in NYC's Times Square, ushering in 2014A sea of horn-tooting, hat-wearing revelers cheered and some even smooched as the famed crystal ball dropped in freezing New York City's Times Square to ring in 2014, capping a world-wide wave of celebrations that included a dazzling 30-minute fireworks show in Dubai and a deluge of confetti in London that tasted as good as it looked. Bronx-born U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor led the 60-second countdown and pushed the button that u...

After Christmas begins before the holidayIt's beginning to look a lot like ... the day after Christmas? On the day before Christmas, retailers turned shoppers' attention to the day after the holiday. Amazon.com already is offering "after Christmas" deals of up to 70 percent off clothes and 60 percent off some electronics. Old Navy is running TV ads that its "after-holiday sale starts early" with discounts of up to 75 percent off. And CVS was selling a wine cabinet for $10 off at $39....

NASA astronauts tackle urgent spacewalking repairsAstronauts removed an old space station pump Saturday, sailing through the first of a series of urgent repair spacewalks to revive a crippled cooling line. The two Americans on the crew, Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins, successfully pulled out the ammonia pump with a bad valve __ well ahead of schedule. That task had been planned for the next spacewalk on Monday. "An early Christmas," observed Mission Control as Mastracchio tugged the ref...

Mega Millions jackpot soars to $636 millionThe Mega Millions jackpot has soared to an estimated $636 million for Tuesday night's drawing, making it the second largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. The top prize had been estimated at $586 million, but lottery officials increased their prediction Tuesday morning because of strong ticket sales. The jackpot now trails only a $656 million Mega Millions pot that was sold in March 2012. Mega Millions changed its rules in October to help in...

Colo. shooting hits state still trying to recoverCENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado high school student with an apparent grudge against a teacher wounded a classmate with a shotgun before killing himself, chilling a state that's still trying to make sense of mass shootings at Columbine High School and an Aurora movie theater. Quick-thinking students at Arapahoe High School on Friday alerted the targeted teacher, who quickly left the building. Police immediately locked down the scene on the ...